


When You Call (I'll Always Be There)

by goddess_julie



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angsty Schmoop, Fluff, M/M, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2013-11-24
Packaged: 2018-01-02 11:45:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1056364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddess_julie/pseuds/goddess_julie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Arthur needs Merlin he'll always be there for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When You Call (I'll Always Be There)

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as my Day 23 fic for Mini Nanowrimo on LJ. I'm doing 30 fics in 30 days in different fandoms.

The second that Merlin received Arthur’s call that his father was in the hospital and the prognosis did not look good, he called into his boss Gaius and informed him he would need an undetermined amount of time off. They were a very small medical clinic and while Merlin oversaw most of the operations and day to day issues, Gaius, the sole physician in the clinic, was technically the boss.

“Not to worry my boy,” Gaius said warmly. “George is quite capable of handling things in your absence, and knowing you, everything for the next week or so is done and ready to be processed so take your time and don’t worry about us.”

Merlin gave him a great sigh of thanks and began to prepare his things, pausing only when Gaius asked him to stop in just before leaving. 

“Please Merlin, bring this vial to Morgana, it has been a while since she’s last refilled her prescription, and if things are as bad with Uther as I fear, she will need these at night.”

Merlin nodded and placed the medication in his bag.

“Also, give them my best and remind the family that if they need anything, my door is open day and night.”

Gaius was a long standing friend of the Pendragons, meeting Uther through daughter of a family friend, Ygraine Du Bois. Ygraine had been Arthur’s mother. It was through Giaus that Merlin had ultimately met Arthur and fallen in love with him. Merlin wasn’t sure he would ever be able to repay the elder Physician for the gift he’d brought to Merlin’s life.

“AND,” Giaus called as Merlin was halfway out the front door. Merlin turned around to smile impatiently at him, not wanting to be rude but needing to get home where Arthur had told Merlin he’d gone. “Take care of yourself Merlin. Don’t focus all your attention on Arthur, someone needs to look after you as well.”

Merlin couldn’t stop the affectionate grin from taking over his face as he blushed and ducked his head. Gaius had been the closest thing to a father he’d known, never meeting his own father Balinor Emrys and only hearing stories of him from his mother.

“Yes DAD!” Merlin called as he ran out the door and headed for the tube to take him home. It was unclear why Arthur, after being told by Morgana, her husband Leon and the doctors at Albion General Hospital where Uther was currently in ICU, to go home for a few hours to get something to eat and rest, would have gone to Merlin’s flat instead of his own. It wasn’t an issue, as they had long since passed the time where they had exchanged keys and were invited to each other’s places even without the other there. But Arthur’s flat was much more suited to his expensive tastes and lifestyle. Being a Pendragon, Arthur had never known anything but living a life of luxury. He had grown up with servants tending to his every need, only needing to open his wallet to have more than enough money to pay for things and the security to not have to ever do anything and still be well to do.

Merlin on the other hand had been raised solely by his mother, who had worked two jobs Merlin’s entire life to ensure that he didn’t lack any of the basic essential needs growing up. They had always been blessed with food on the table, and if sometimes Merlin had been the only one eating that food because there wasn’t enough for two, he never said anything. Hunith, his mother, was Merlin’s hero as how poor they had been growing up, how little they had in comparison to others, she had taught him generosity, kindness and nothing but love.

Merlin let himself into his flat, surprised at the silence he found. With a glance around the living room, he noticed Arthur’s familiar red jacket hanging off of the back of a chair at the table and his shoes sitting neatly on the mat. 

Within seconds Merlin was in his kitchen, setting up his teapot. He filled it with water, set it on the stove and turned the element on before heading through the small one bedroom flat in search of Arthur. He was surprised to find him as he opened his bedroom door, curled up asleep in the middle of Merlin’s bed. It wasn’t Arthur in his bed asleep that surprised him in so much as the fact that Merlin’s grey Persian cat Kilgharrah was tucked up against Arthur’s chest, sleeping soundly and purring so loudly Merlin could hear it across the room.

It was a common known fact that Arthur distrusted Kilgharrah and Kilgharrah HATED Arthur. Whenever the blonde was over and they were all in the same room, it was a range of hissing and swatting mixed with growling and biting. Not all of it by Merlin’s cat. Merlin stepped into the room as he softly padded across to his bed. At the sound he made, Kilgharrah’s eyes opened, he stretched and softly meowed at Merlin before shifting and placing one paw over Arthur’s hand protectively.

Merlin’s heart swelled about four sizes at that sight.

He quietly left the room and turned the stove off. It was clear by the lines on Arthur’s forehead that the blonde needed to sleep for a bit and Merlin didn’t want to wake him up just for tea and to make him talk. Whatever was going on with Uther could wait, if there was an emergency, Morgana would call.

With gentle precision, Merlin undid Arthur’s pants and pulled them off, knowing he would be more comfortable in the t-shirt he was wearing and his boxer briefs. Merlin followed suit with his own clothes and grabbed Arthur’s favourite afghan that Hunith had made Merlin when he was ten and covered the three of them with it, Kilgharrah refused to move, even for Merlin to snuggle in closer.

“You cheeky bugger,” Merlin scolded almost silently, “Arthur is my boyfriend, not yours.”

He only got a huff in response as Kilgharrah shifted closer to Arthur and made himself even more comfortable. Merlin tried to keep his laughter to a minimum, not wanting the shaking of the bed to wake the sleeping man.

When Merlin awoke next, Kilgharrah was gone and he opened his eyes to stare directly into sleepy blue ones. Arthur was watching him in silent fascination. 

“When did you get here?” Arthur asked as he pressed their mouths together softly.

“About twenty after you called,” Merlin yawned and moved in closer, now that there wasn’t a cat between them.

“You didn’t have to leave work,” Arthur snuggled against his boyfriend, pressing his face into Merlin’s chest. They laid in silence for a few moments. “So Killer,” Arthur chuckled at the nickname he’d always used for Merlin’s cat. “I come in and he’s all hissing and growling at me right. He follows me in here and when I lay down he comes on the bed to tell me off, but he must have seen something because when I thought he was going to come up and bite my face, he starts licking at my cheek and nose and then fell asleep with me.”

Merlin nodded with a grin. “I saw that, he barely let me get in with you.”

“I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist my charms forever.” Arthur’s voice was proud, his chest puffed up from his ego.

“I know I didn’t.” Merlin waited a few moments for Arthur to relax into his embrace. When their breathing had evened out he started to run his fingers through Arthurs’ hair soothingly. “Tell me what happened.” He felt Arthur shrug.

“We don’t know exactly,” he said softly. “One minute he was fine, the next he couldn’t breathe and had collapsed. We don’t know if it’s a stroke or heart attack. All we know is that if he makes it, he may not be the same man we know. They worked to revive him and his blood pressure was so low that they don’t know how long it was that he wasn’t getting blood or oxygen to his brain.”

“Oh Arthur,” Merlin sighed lovingly. “I’m so sorry. I know it doesn’t mean much of anything, but I know it’s hard.”

“It all happened so fast,” Arthur continued softly. “And then they told us to go. That we couldn’t stay where he was going to be, and worrying in the hospital when we couldn’t see him wouldn’t help anyone. So they said to take a few hours to go and eat, relax and just think about things and what happens if he does make it through and what if it doesn’t. Because either way, he’s not leaving the same man we knew.”

Their eyes met and Merlin smiled before kissing Arthur thoroughly. “I’m glad you came here. I’m glad you called me.”

Arthur held onto Merlin tight, as though trying to crawl right into his skin. “It’s the only place I wanted to go,” he admitted. “I thought about it and the only place I could go was here. I needed to be somewhere safe, somewhere that feels like home that I know that … that I know I’m loved.”

Tears formed in the corner of Merlin’s eyes at Arthur’s words. “You are loved. I love you, and now my cat loves you and you’re always welcome here.”

“I want to be where you are, where I can feel you and even when you’re not here, I feel you here.” Arthur pulled the blanket so that it was covering them both completely, cocooning them under the afghan. “I love you Merlin.”

He knew how much it was taking for Arthur to make these admissions. Arthur was always a very emotionally reserved person. If anyone between the two of them was freely open about their feelings and emotions it was Merlin. He had never seen the blonde so stripped down and bare before. It made Merlin want to fix everything in Arthur’s life that hurt him. Including his father who Merlin knew hated him with a passion because he wasn’t good enough for Arthur Pendragon. At least not according to Uther Pendragon’s standards.

“I love you too, Arthur.” He did, more than anything. And once they got out of bed and had a cup of tea, Merlin fed him some dinner and they met up with Morgana and Leon at the hospital, he would prove that to the blonde man. He would continue to prove it to him for as long as Arthur would let him and probably even after that.

FINIS


End file.
